The Dangers of Hiking

Superfreak said:
"That's the point. You don't konw what's lurking around you. And now this guys face looks like it went through a meat grinder."

Ummmm, it is not hard to find out the types of animals that inhabit the area that you plan to hike. I have been hiking all over the country and never been attacked... and very rarely even approached.

By your logic, you should never go out on the streets in NYC or Detroit or Chicago etc.... cause you might get attacked by a mugger. I guarantee you it is far more likely that you will be attacked by another human than it is that you would be attacked by an animal.... well except for pit bulls... those bastards need to be put down.
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you can at least try to reason with another person or pay them off. I'll take my chances with a mugger rather than a ML or bear any day of the week.
 
Damocles said:
Your chances of dying while driving are so much higher than your chances of dying while in the clutches of some animal you come upon while hiking that you should be paralyzed if you apply this logic everywhere. Shoot, humans die more often in the shower than they ever do while hiking in an area with mountain lions. On a per capita basis it is far, far more dangerous to take a shower than to hike in a place with lions.

As I said though, I would not take a small child hiking around mountain lions. If they become separated from you they are in far more danger than any adult who hikes.
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where are you getting this data?
 
LadyT said:
you can at least try to reason with another person or pay them off. I'll take my chances with a mugger rather than a ML or bear any day of the week.
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You can if you want to, I can deal with a critter much better than a hooman with a gun or knife.
The critters are much more predictable.
 
From real life experience. Mountain lions are not only in the mountains but they also live in my fire district, if there is an attack we respond.

In the years between 1991 to 1004 there were a total of 50 confirmed attacks in all of the US and Canada with only 10 being fatal attacks. With the large numbers of people that go into our mountains or camp in the areas surrounding, say, my area the numbers would be far higher. The chances of dying from a car accident are so far higher than mountain lions it just becomes ridiculous to worry about it rather than to enjoy the outdoors.

http://www.gf.state.az.us/w_c/mtn_lion_attacks.shtml

Your chances of dying in a bathtub are about 1 in 385,000, your chances of dying by a mountain lion attack are somewhere nearer to 1 in 40 million or so.

You have a better chance of winning the powerball than you do of dying from such an attack. They are simply too rare.

Here is a nice page to make you wonder about such odds:

http://www.funny2.com/odds.htm

Here is a story to put it in perspective...

http://garywockner.home.comcast.net/mtnlyin.html

For the record, with all the people camping and hiking in Colorado in all of its recorded history there have been exactly three people who have been killed by the dreaded beast.

Here is a portion of that story:

Here’s a little perspective, also tragic: According to the State of Colorado’s Vital Statistics in 2002, the chances of dying of a heart attack or stroke are 1 in 500, of cancer are 1 in 750, in a car wreck are 1 in 7,500, of suicide are 1 in 7,500, of drugs/alcohol are 1 in 10,000, with a gun (murder or accidental) are 1 in 10,000. The chances of dying of a work-related injury are 1 in 50,000.
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So, I'd rather hike around mountain lions than go to work on any given day.
 
Cypress said:
Mountain lion attacks on humans are extremely rare, and they generally try to avoid humans.
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Right you are. I've been hiking my entire life in regions notorious for mountain lions yet have never seen one in the wild. Much to my disappointment, I might add.
 
uscitizen said:
You can if you want to, I can deal with a critter much better than a hooman with a gun or knife.
The critters are much more predictable.
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I've never had an animal bother me in the wilderness - although I've had to throw rocks at a few bears.

Frankly, the only time I've ever been in danger in the wilderness, was from humans. I've had hillbillys and backwoods survivalists shove a shotgun in my face a couple times.
 
Cypress said:
I've never had an animal bother me in the wilderness - although I've had to throw rocks at a few bears.

Frankly, the only time I've ever been in danger in the wilderness, was from humans. I've had hillbillys and backwoods survivalists shove a shotgun in my face a couple times.
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That happened to me once when I was parked with a girl in High School.
 
Cypress said:
That's way cool!
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IT was a little shark about 3.5 feet, and it was sick or something because it had bumps on its face and it keept swimming at me, but kinda sideways.

I finally got scared of it when it came back a third time and so I hit it in the nose pretty hard and it scattered off!
 
I met a black bear on a portage once -- we each took off in opposite directions. Black bears might try to get into your food, but unless you're between a sow and her cubs you won't have a problem with them attacking.
 
uscitizen said:
Moose with Antlers, now there is one unpredictable mean critter....
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And exceedingly dangerous. I once saw a Diesel Truck without a trailer stopped dead in its tracks by a Moose who shook it off and walked away...

If he was injured, I really couldn't tell.
 
Thorn said:
I met a black bear on a portage once -- we each took off in opposite directions. Black bears might try to get into your food, but unless you're between a sow and her cubs you won't have a problem with them attacking.
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The only time I've ever been genuinely frightened by a wild animal was by a black bear sow once when I was in Boy Scouts. We were camping in Tuolomne Meadows on the rim of Yosemite. A group of about 5 of the guys -- 5 of the dumber guys, I have to say -- found two young, maybe 5 month old, cubs playing in the road. To give them credit, they thought the cubs were the cutest things they'd ever seen. They gathered in a circle around 'em, just to watch.

I was one of the patrol leaders. The scoutmaster, senior patrol leader and I came around a bend to see this ring of dumbass scouts surrounding a pair of cubs and, absolutely simultaneously, I swear, all shouted "NO!" as loud as we could.

Right then, momma bear came crashing out of the underbrush, with dead boy scouts on her mind. Adult bears run really, really fast when they're mad.

Ever seen a twelve year old kid from East Palo Alto climb a tree faster than a 250 pound bear? I have. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Momma was satisfied (apparently) with watching all the two-legged menaces run like hell. She swatted the cubs off into the forest, never to be seen again . . . by us, anyway.
 
Tabby cat terror for black bear
The black bear up a tree with Jack the cat at the base
Jack the cat is possessive about his territory, his owners say
A black bear got more than it bargained for after straying into a family garden in the US state of New Jersey.

The unwelcome intruder was forced up a tree - twice - by the family pet, a tabby cat called Jack.

The terrified bear was only able to make its escape when owner Donna Dickey called the hissing cat into the house.

Ms Dickey said Jack liked to keep a close watch on his territory and often chased away small animals, but one of this size was a first.

"We used to joke, 'Jack's on duty', never knowing he'd go after a bear," Donna Dickey told local newspaper The Star-Ledger.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5067912.stm?lsm
 
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